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Bishop's and Earl's Palaces, Kirkwall
Street address: Watergate, Kirkwall, Orkney KW15 1PD, Scotland, United Kingdom
Telephone: 44 (0) 1856 871918
E-mail:
Website: http:/
Proprietor: Historic Scotland
Contact: Emily Velzian Steward
Opening hours: Apr-Sep: 9.30am-6.30pm daily; Oct-Mar: closed
Admission: £3.50 adult, £1.75 child, £2.80 concessions
Accessibility: Free adjacent on-street parking; combination of large number of steps and gravel path make Bishop’s Palace unsuitable for people using wheelchairs or with limited mobility but it can be viewed from the outside; reasonable access to the ground floor of the Earl’s Palace - two small, wide steps to exhibition and one step to video display; grounds have tarmac paths with some steps which are unsuitable for visitors using wheelchairs; sound loop at video display and cash till area
 The Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall is a 12th-century hall-house built simultaneously with the nearby St Magnus Cathedral to provide accommodation for Bishop William the Old, a Norwegian bishop who reported to the Archbishop of Trondheim. The palace was later modified, and a round tower was constructed in 1541-48. Today all that remains of the Bishop's Palace is the shell of one main building and the round tower - the Moosie Too.
The adjacent Earl's Palace was constructed from 1607 and built by Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney using slave labour. He and his father, Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, are acknowledged to have been among the most tyrannical Earls in Scotland.
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